Aral Sea 125
hexachlorocyclohexane, toxaphene, and pho-
salone—all known carcinogens. The chemicals
have worked their way into every level of the
food chain.
Today Karakalpakstan registers esophageal
cancer rates 25 times as high as the world aver-
age. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is a ma-
jor problem, and respiratory diseases, cancers,
birth defects, and immunological disorders are
widespread.
Perhaps even more frightening is the revela-
tion that the Aral Sea once was home to a secret
Soviet biological weapons testing facility. Locat-
ed on Vozrozhdeniya Island—which, now that
the sea is gone, is no longer an island—the facili-
ty was the main test site for the Soviet military’s
Microbiological Warfare Group. Thousands of
animals were shipped to the island, where they
were subjected to anthrax, smallpox, plague,
brucellosis, and other biological agents.
The U.S. State Department, concerned that
rusting drums of anthrax could fall into the
wrong hands, sent a cleanup team there in 2002.
No biological agents have been found in the dust
since then, but sporadic outbreaks of plague
afflict the surrounding region.
As we continue toward the sea, we pass doz-
ens of oil and natural gas rigs that punctuate
what is otherwise a brittle, pancake-flat desert
of sun-bleached sand. According to Kamalov, the
rigs started appearing as soon as the sea began
to recede, and each year a few more are erected.
“Obviously, they provide a massive disincentive
for the government to do anything that might
cause the sea to refill,” he says.
For hours we bump along on rutted dirt
tracks. Other than the white sand and the blue
sky, the only colors I can make out are the pale
green of lonesome saxaul bushes and the pink
of occasional tamarisk shrub blossoms.
Soviet officials often cited Russia’s most famous climatologist,
Aleksandr Voeikov, who called the Aral a “mistake of nature.”